Claimed paintings, leftover paints and doodles/mandalas

Last Sunday, I had a very happy day painting all day, adding the next two layers to my two canvases for the Bloom True class - contrast and translucence. On Monday, my Mum popped in, and when she saw the two canvases on my easel, she just absolutely loved them and said that the big one would look perfect in her conservatory. When I told her these were just the first layers, and that most, if not all of it, was going to be covered over, she nearly had a fit. "You're going to paint over it? Covering it up?? Are you insane??? Why on earth would you want to do that??" I tried to explain to her about the course, and showed her examples of what they could turn into, but she wouldn't hear any of it. "Madness!" I tried to explain to her about the 'letting go', about painting over something you like in order to turn it into something you like even better. "Letting go?? You want to let go? Well, you just let go of it right now and give it to me!!". She literally forbade me to add any more paint to the canvas and declared it hers.

I had been so happy to, for the first time ever, be keeping up with a class, and having my two canvases ready for the new week. And here I was, with one canvas short. Good thing that Monday is my day off. I gessoed over an old painting and started adding the first layers again and adding more in the evenings the following days. Now I'm ready again for the weekend, to go through this week's painting lessons and add more layers. I have quite a few bottles of fluid paints, had them for ages and hardly ever used them. I'm so glad to re-discover them again now. I just love their translucency! I'm looking forward to adding the next layers, and to see where my paintings are going and how they'll turn out eventually. And I told my Mum that from now on, she wouldn't be allowed to see any of the paintings until they are finished...

I've been using the pages of a sketchbook to use up left over paints. It makes great backgrounds to doodle on. I've also started drawing mandalas, which is a first for me. I never thought about drawing them, but then, they are just shapes and patterns, which I have drawn many times. Just in a more organised way. They are quite addictive too. Perfect to relax and switch off the brain in the evenings. And I just love drawing with gel pens on darker backgrounds.

Happy Paint Party Friday!